


people will always be critical

by orphan_account



Category: American Revolution RPF, Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, TW: Homophobia, henry laurens is generally the worst (tm), i guess, it's good, slowwwwwww updates, turned real relationship, tw: all of the phobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7919083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex knows that there are worse things than spending a week with your crush's homophobic family (when he's your freaking roommate<br/>and you know that his life depends on you not outing him to his family in the middle restaurant in freezing new york city on christmas break). He's just having a little trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	people will always be critical

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like this! Kudos and Reviews are greatly appreciated (and so is a beta!)

_ring ring_

John's hand hovered over his phone still unsure- did he want to accept the call? It was from his father so that meant one of three things.

1) He was trying to set John up with one of his snobby rich lawyer friend's daughters. He hadn't exactly came out to him yet- he knew that his dad would be terrible and he needed someone to pay for his college.

2) A relative had died. Not the worst case scenario as he wasn't close to his family (save for his sister Martha), but still sad. He guessed.

3) He had to come home for Christmas break.

John prayed (metaphorically of course- his father's overwhelming faith was what lead him to become an Atheist) that that wasn't the case. Last time he'd came home it was _hell_. He thought Charleston was bad before, but now the mayor was so far to the right he'd make Ted Cruz look like Jill freaking Stein. The racists of the city were proud. Why? He had no clue.

He stared back at his phone and hesitantly took the call, "Hello, John," he heard his dad say, spitting into his phone's microphone as usual.

"Hi, Dad," he greeted with false enthusiasm. His roommate, Alexander Hamilton, looked up from his laptop (a rare occurrence), fists clenching. Henry Laurens was the embodiment of everything Alex hated, racist, sexist, homophobic, generally intolerant, super Christian, Pro Life, Pro Gun and he we pretty sure that he was a Trump supporter.

"How's school been?" Henry asked. Since when did he care about how school was? John thought. Did he read a parenting book? Did Martha finally snap? Why was this man showing an ounce of human decency?

"It's going well," John replied, not knowing what else to say.

"Do you still have that," Henry paused, " _politically inclined_ roommate?" When Alex had met Henry at the beginning of the school year, to inspect his and John's shared apartment, they hated each other at first sight. It didn't help that Alex lacked a brain to mouth filter and that Henry's beliefs were set in stone.

"Yep," John responded checking on the said roommate, who was rapidly playing a game of Tetris on his laptop, having finished his final assignments before winter break. Alex had a freakish talent when it came to video games- especially mini games. Mario Party was hell.

"Be grateful it's only for a few more days," Henry sighed. John heard a pen click and some shuffling of papers from the other end, followed by a clicking of a pen. Of course, it's not like his dad to set aside time to call him, "speaking of which, I think that instead of you coming home for Christmas, we come and visit you,"

John's jaw dropped. "That's just an idea right," he asked, hopefully.

He heard his dad chuckle from the other end of the phone, "We're coming on Monday and staying in a hotel near you for a week."

John was speechless, "A-anything else?" He asked, bracing himself.

"I've made dinner reservations for the night we arrived and I expect you to bring a date," Henry added, "And I'm sure you don't mind if the kids stay with you and," he scoffed, "Alexander,"

He did mind, he minded a lot. For one thing John wanted to spend more time with Alex (whom he had developed more than a little bit of a crush on). And, while he loved his siblings and all, he didn't want to be in his shoebox apartment with them for a week. Especially when there was a plethora of secrets John had worked hard to hide. Namely, pride flags, protest signs, and Alex's extra binder. (Yeah, great idea Henry. Amend the possibility that your son would be rooming with a Transgender person by forcing him to live with one)

"See you on Monday then," John responded with clenched teeth. His internal monologue was a string of expletives that would put tumblr to shame.

"See you on Monday, Jack," Henry responded, and hung up without so much as an I love you. Not that John expected any of that from his dad, it was all wishful thinking.

"You aren't going home for Christmas, are you?" Alex asked turning his swivel chair away from his computer. "I heard you talking to your dad,"

"It's worse," John responded, "he's coming here. With my siblings."

"And for how long must I endure this?" Alex asked.

"A week," John responded, though Alex was unamused, "and my siblings are staying with us,"

"All of them?" Alex asked, he knew that John had four siblings- two of which were rowdy "manly man" teenagers. He nodded. "This should be fun," Alex sighed.  
_________________________________

"Can't your dad just hire a car service or something?" Alex complained wearing five layers under his already puffy winter coat. His car keys were in his gloved hands "I'm not driving in this weather,"

"Oh," John added, trying not to mock Alex's outfit, "he's taking a cab, we're taking the kids." He hated when his father dumped his fatherly duties onto him. He knew that Henry was just in town for business and just brought the kids along so they could have a "White Christmas" and John was forced to watch them. As if Christmas in South Carolina wasn't white enough.

"Get in," Alex sighed, opening the car door.

When they arrived at La Guardia airport about an hour later (due to faulty navigation on John's part that may have been caused by denial) they were greeted by four excited kids and a very unamused Henry. "You're late," he said, despite them arriving only three minutes past one.

John's oldest sister, Martha rolled her bright blue eyes (those she got from their father). To the casual observer, she was just another basic white girl with her beanie and Uggs (which made John almost feel bad for her, knowing that actual winter weather would destroy them), but John knew that she was a die hard liberal activist who liked Superwholock and was a self proclaimed "meme queen".

"Nice to see you too dad," John sighed, as Alex helped Jemmy and Harry with their bags. Jemmy, short for James was 15. Being the "good southern boy" he was, he played many sports, and was one of the most popular kids at his school. He'd also had three long term girlfriends by the time he started sophomore year of high school.

Harry, at age 13, was a different story. He'd never shown interest in sports and instead played every video game he could get his hands on, and frequently disobeyed their father. He reminded John of Alex, in a way.

John vividly remembered his father's reaction when he found out that his son's roommate was gay (bisexual, John had corrected. And how he found out that but not the other part, John would never know). He'd almost made John move apartments. So the rule was that Alex couldn't "turn John gay" (though to be honest, he was way too late on that). The real reason that John had had to move out in the first place is that his father found out that NYU assigned transgender students roommates of their identified gender, once again Henry only making a fool of himself.

"How's college?" Henry continued, half paying attention, "still got your heart set on being a journalist?" He'd said journalist as if nothing could be worse.

"Yes, dad," John sighed, helping his sister, Ellie with her bags. Ellie, short for Mary Eleanor, at age 6 was the baby of the family. Her golden hair was tied into pigtails with pink bows as if to emphasize her innocence. Seriously, between that and her little pony backpack.

"I'm graduating next year y'know." John slipped into his southern accent, no doubt to please his father. Alex resisted the urge to laugh.

"Okay okay," he sighed. "Martha's got all the information you'll need, she can send you the address of my hotel and everything. Now, I've got a meeting that I'd rather not be late for," he glared at Alex as he stormed off. "Dinner reservations at 7, meet me there,"

After an awkward moment of silence, Alex spoke up, "I've only got the car parked for another 12.5 minutes, so we should probably move." There was an unspoken agreement among the group as they made their way to Alex's car.

"Jack," Jemmy asked, "Why don't you live at college?" He noticed, as they abandoned the FDR and drove straight to a neighborhood known as (to Alex's's amusement) Hamilton Heights, while the primary NYU campus was still miles south.

"Because dad's a transphobic prick," Martha responded. John admired his sister's audacity. At 17, she was his oldest sister, and definitely his closest sibling. Much to their father's dismay, she was hoping to attend college in New York.

"Is Alex your boyfriend?" Harry asked, making both John and Alex blush (they both swore it was the cold weather) (it wasn't).

"No," Alex supplied, but his tone implied more of a "not yet". Sure it might look like they're dating to the casual observer, they did talk a lot, they spend most of their time together, and went out on what could be "dates". They even snuggled (in the most platonic way possible), and had kissed once (or do they were told. They were both pretty drunk)

Martha raised an eyebrow, "I'll tell you later," John whispered, though there wasn't much to tell. She giggled, she should be the first to know about his feelings for Alex. She was the first person he'd came out to, and short after that she came out to him. Since then they'd grown even closer.

Alex managed to operate the car keys a second time through his ridiculously thick gloves. Alex drove, with John riding shotgun. The four others piled in the back, Ellie sitting on Martha's lap. "Is there any music you want to listen to?" John asked, trying to please his siblings, despite Alex's "podcasts only" rule.

"Do you have the new Drake album?" Jemmy asked, "dad won't let us listen to it," ah yes, Alex thought. The phase every white boy goes through at that age- "I wanna be a gangster".

"No," Alex vetoed, "I've gotta stay on your dad's good side,"

"So you can ask Jack out?" Harry teased. The two men once again blushed.

"I'll have you know that I do not need your father's permission to ask John out on a date," Alex replied, followed by a moment of awkward silence.

Ellie spoke up next, "Can we go to the American Girl Doll store?" John had remembered her getting into them just as he left for college. He swore she loved that doll more than she loved him. "They have tea parties!"

"Maybe that will be my Christmas present to you," John half teased. He hadn't gotten any of his siblings presents, save the "gay books" (Every Day, Carry On, and Afterworlds- all disguised as books on conservative politics- thanks to Herc's photoshopping skills and keys to the university copy room) he'd gotten for Martha, so this was the perfect chance to get them something.

Ellie's face lit up as she squealed with delight, "Can we go to the Lego store?" Harry continued. "You can build your own mini figures!"

"I want to go to Coney Island !" Jemmy added. John hoped he knew that it was only open in the summer. The rest of the car ride was filled with similar questions to that, as the younger Laurens' making a plan, which Henry would most likely disapprove of. Oh well.

_________________________________

"This is your apartment?" Martha exclaimed, an hour of what should've been thirty minutes (holiday traffic) later. She looked around at her brothers apartment. It was pretty much like every apartment from every tv show set in NYC ever, save the fairy lights. That is to say, they shared a loft, which had curtains, and poorly assembled IKEA furniture for walls.

Their "bedroom" consisted of two loft beds with desks underneath, with a swivel char on one side and an exercise ball on the other (ever since Alex found out his Rival, Thomas Jefferson's, family owns the patent for swivel chairs, he boycotted them entirely. John just sat and laughed). It now also held two air mattress, which had been "borrowed" from the Schuylers'.

Across the bed-sheet held up by clothespins, the other room had a kitchen which was stocked for the first time in months, parallel to a bookshelf. On the other side a low coffee table was surrounded by a pullout couch and miscellaneous pillows. To the left, there were two swings that Alex found abandoned in the park and, after writing an essay to John saying "why we need to preserve a childlike mindset", hung up across from the sheet which, with a $20 hack, Alex has set up to be a projector so they could watch The Daily Show together without straining their eyes over a laptop.

"I think so," Alex responded sarcastically.

"Yes." John glared at Alex, "you can leave your stuff in the bedroom which is just past the sheet. We've got beds and stuff for you,"

After seeing the silhouette cast on the sheet by the light from the window, Ellie had taken it upon herself to claim the top bunk (via racing her brothers) while Martha stayed behind. "And you two will sleep together on the couch...just don't tell dad," she mouthed.

Alex didn't really see a problem with that- they'd done it before, when Alex's foster family came over for thanksgiving, and before that, when Alex couldn't be bothered to build the IKEA beds and John had just returned from a night class. There wasn't anything romantic about it, they just slept there. But now he saw the problem, "right, I'll take the floor," Alex responded, "good catch there, any other indicators of my raging bisexuality?"

"Never use that phrase again," John added, under his breath. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Just those," she gestured towards a pile of protest signs that John and Alex had used, with statements like "homosexuality is a disease and I've caught it for you" "if you stand for nothing what'll you fall for," and Alex's personal favorite, "I'm so angry I made a sign,"

"Right," John agreed, and kicked them into their (oddly large) supply closet.

"Hey look, it's your home, the closet," Alex joked.

"Not all of us are in a safe position to come out to the public," John responded, not putting up with any of Alex's bullcrap "I need for dad to pay for school- I've told you."

"Ok," Alex sighed, "I was just making a joke,"

After everyone was settled, Alex went to go get groceries. Really, they had more than enough, but John knew Alex needed some time alone. Alex wasn't used to being around children. 

John sat down on their couch and, notebook in hand, proceeded to attempt to make a plan in which all of his siblings were satisfied. Harry had taken to playing on his 3DS, Jemmy was scrolling through some social media app on his phone, and Martha was begrudgingly playing dolls with Ellie.

When Alex returned, with no groceries (making John think he was just playing Pokèmon Go) it was already 6:00, giving them an half an hour to get ready before they went to the restaurant- which only turned out to be a few stations away on the one train. Oh what fun it would be to drag a bunch of rich kids on the subway. 

Alex greeted John, before grabbing some clothes from his dresser and changing in the bathroom. When he emerged, Alex was wearing a green blazer over a white button up shirt, and jeans. Aside from a two other blazers, those were the only nice clothes he owned (to John's knowledge). "Okay, bathrooms' open," he announced, before joining John on the couch and sitting an inch past what would be considered platonic.

John, who'd already changed, looked at Alex, as he pulled out his laptop and started typing away, fingers flying over the keys. "You're doing classwork already?" John asked, trying to get Alex to just take a break.

"No, finished that ages ago," Alex explained, "this is for fun,"

"What is it?" John prompted.

"A list of your dad's dumbass arguments that may come up at dinner and how I plan on refuting them,"

Oh boy, this was going to be fun.


End file.
